A Child’s Art

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Another of the poems in The Little Book of the Past by Josephine Preston Peabody is this one:

Making a House

First of all, I draw the Smoke
Trailing up the sky;
Then the Chimney, underneath;
And Birds all flying by;
Then the House; and every Window,
Watching, like an Eye.

Everybody else begins
With the House. But I
Love the Smoke the best of all;
And you don’t know why!…
Here it goes,—like little feathers,
Sailing up the sky!

Below is Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott’s illustration of the poem.

Illustration of “Making a House” by Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott
in The Book of the Little Past by Josephine Preston Peabody,
published by the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1910.
Courtesy Library of Congress.

On a recent morning walk, Ray and I talked about the poem while sharing memories of our own childhood drawings. Both of us also drew houses with chimneys and smoke coming out of them. Neither of us lived in houses with smoke coming out of the chimneys, so we don’t know why we drew them that way. I find that fascinating.

What I like about this poem and its illustration is the way they reveal how children think. This child really cares about his drawing and has his own reasons for what he does. Though he knows how other children draw houses:

Everybody else begins
With the House.

He knows that his way is unique and he likes that.

But I
Love the Smoke the best of all;

The next line holds a powerful truth:

And you don’t know why!…

That’s right! We often don’t know why a child is doing something the way he is. And it’s always a good idea not to jump to our own preconceived notions of why too quickly. A mama who seeks to understand is a great blessing to a child. Proverbs 18:15 is wise advice for both children and adults.

The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge,
And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
Proverbs 18:15

 

 

 

 

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